Lake Worth Approves Upgrade Of The City's Electrical System

The Lake Worth City Commission has approved a $3.6 million upgrade of its maligned electric utility, a move city officials say will make the system more reliable.

In a 3-2 vote early Wednesday, the commission adopted a plan to upgrade Lake Worth Utilities electrical system from 4.16 kilovolt lines to 26.4 kV, which is already in use west of the city. City officials put the price at $1.6 million for the upgrade and an additional $2 million for materials. They hope the installation will be nearly completed in time for peak energy demand this summer.

The plan had the support of the citizens' committee appointed to review electricity issues, but was widely criticized by committee Chairman William Coakley. In voting against the proposal when it came before the Citizen's Review Task Force last week, Coakley said his research indicated that higher voltage 26.4 kV lines are less reliable and not standard throughout most of Florida. Some residents who spoke out against the proposal at Tuesday night's meeting said they were concerned converting the utility's entire system to 26.4 kV would make it less desirable to Florida Power & Light Co., which uses mostly 13.2 kV lines.

City Commissioner Nadine Burns, who voted in favor of the plan, said she was convinced after attending recent task force meetings in which Coakley questioned electricity experts presented by the city.

"The chairman came with a whole laundry list of concerns and each one seemed to be shot down," Burns said. "The setup of a system affects reliability, not the voltage."

Mayor Marc Drautz asked the commission to table the issue for another week or two to allow time to answer some of the questions about reliability. He said he wanted to see more power outage data from the city corresponding to 26.4 kV lines.

But Drautz's recommendation was shot down and he voted against the proposal, along with Commissioner Retha Lowe.

"I felt like there were a few questions I still wanted answers to," Drautz said. "I wanted some more time to look at the outage data before I committed all this money to something."